PS3 backwards compatibility gone for good

It’s official: Sony has confirmed that backwards compatibility definitely isn’t returning to the PlayStation 3.

During a recent interview, John Koller, Sony’s Director of hardware marketing, said: “It’s not coming back.”

The PS3 did feature support for PS2 games when it launched back in 2006. North American and Japanese models achieved this using embedded hardware, while European machines got the same result through software emulation.

But – for reasons which still aren’t 100 per cent clear – Sony subsequently removed backwards compatibility from later PS3 models.

Koller’s statement backtracks slightly on commens made by Eric Lempell, Sony’s PlayStation network director, back in 2008. Lempell hinted that backwards compatibility may return.

Why the change of heart? The option just isn’t as big a “purchase intent driver” as you would think, he told Ars Technica.

The Sony exec is confident that because the console has a “substantial” line-up of gaming titles and Blu-ray support, no one wants to play old PS2 games. ®